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Manila, Philippines – January 29, 2017 – In front of a global audience, Iris Mittenaere was crowned the new Miss Universe at Mall of Asia...

Manila, Philippines – January 29, 2017 – In front of a global audience, Iris Mittenaere was crowned the new Miss Universe at Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. The three-hour special programming event aired live on FOX in the United States.

Iris Mittenaere was born north of France in a town called Lille. Mittenaere has kept herself busy the last 5 years by pursuing her degree in Dental Surgery. Besides dental school, Mittenaere has always been fond of extreme sports, travelling the world and cooking new French dishes. She enjoys making others happy, especially when volunteering at Bienvenue-Tongasoa and Les Bonnes Fées.

· Cynthia Bailey: Former model and founder of The Bailey Agency School of Fashion, a modeling and fashion school dedicated to helping young women achieve their dreams; current cast member on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”

· Leila Lopes: First Miss Universe from Angola and former United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Desertification; currently working with various charitable organizations in Africa.

· Francine LeFrak: Emmy® and Tony® Award-winning producer, social entrepreneur, women’s empowerment activist and founder of Same Sky, an initiative that provides training and employment to HIV+ women survivors of the Rwandan genocide.

Prior to the competition, the Miss Universe celebrity red carpet streamed live on MissUniverse.com. Throughout the live telecast, the newly designed Miss Universe website and official Miss U App delivered exclusive content and highlights. Additionally, the Miss Universe digital backstage lounge provided a unique second-screen experience for viewers around the world to see what happens behind-the-scenes.

With a virtual seat at the judging table, an estimated 100 million votes were tabulated from fans around the world to determine which lucky contestant would advance into the Top 13 at the start of the live broadcast, with millions more voting throughout the competition. Eighty-six women represented their countries in this year’s MISS UNIVERSE® competition, which culminated in Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach crowning her successor.

The Miss Universe prize package includes: a year-long salary as Miss Universe; luxury accommodations in a New York City apartment for the duration of her reign, including living expenses; a one-year supply of haircare products and tools from Farouk Systems, the makers of CHI Haircare; a shoe wardrobe from Chinese Laundry Shoes & Accessories; a personalized face chart and products from MAC Cosmetics; personal services including membership to Gravity Fitness @ Le Parker Meridien Hotel and hair services from John Barrett Salon; a modeling portfolio by leading fashion photographers; dermatology and skincare services; a professional health and nutrition consultation; dental services; professional representation by The Miss Universe Organization; extensive travel representing sponsors and charitable partners; access to various events including casting opportunities, movie premiers, screenings, Broadway shows and launch parties; and personal appearance wardrobe and styling by the official Miss Universe Organization fashion stylist.

The Chinese New Year on January 28 marks the beginning of the Year of the Red Fire Rooster. Feng shui experts say it is going to be a Y...

The Chinese New Year on January 28 marks the beginning of the Year of the Red Fire Rooster. Feng shui experts say it is going to be a Yin year—a time best spent in harmony with friends and family.

What better time, then, to create happy moments with these special people than on Chinese New Year, itself—a festive day of colorful rituals and exotic traditions that celebrate a brand-new lunar year.

With exciting events highlighting the grand occasion, expect revelers to immortalize these with endless selfies. And to take the selfie game to the next level, top five premium global brand Vivo brings us the Vivo V5 Plus, the smartphone equipped with the world’s first 20-megapixel dual front camera and advanced selfie technology.

With the perfect selfie phone, and these perfect selfie tips from Vivo, taking photos on Chinese New Year will surely be a breeze:

• Find your perfect angle. Some of us look better photographed from the left, some from the right, some from above. Before heading out to the Chinese New Year festivities, find the angle that suits you best by practicing at home. A fool-proof tip: Avoid take selfies from below—definitely not a good angle for anybody.

• Consider your photo’s background. Vivo V5 Plus features a true ‘bokeh’ effect, beautifully blurring your selfie’s background while your face remains in focus. Now, having a ‘bokeh’ effect does not mean disregarding your background altogether. In fact, it is even better to take advantage of it.

For instance, create a beautiful blur of all the red and gold during Chinese New Year celebrations by choosing the best selfie background. Although Vivo V5 Plus has ‘bokeh’ power, you don’t want to take a selfie with your cluttered closet as the background.

• Lighting is everything. Lighting affects the mood of your pictures. For example, dull or poor lighting makes pictures look gloomy—and you don’t want that for a Chinese New Year selfie. Luckily, Vivo V5 Plus features a selfie soft light, which enables users to take sharp and beautiful selfies even in poor lighting conditions.

• Look your best. Welcome the Chinese New Year with a bang by making an effort to look good. In order to achieve a perfect selfie, everything must be on point—the hair, the face, even the attire. Achieve the perfect look with Vivo V5 Plus face beauty mode 6.0, which will make you look fresh by enhancing your skin tone without the need for editing or filter.

• It’s okay to use a selfie stick. A selfie stick is a pole with a grip at the end, designed to hold your smartphone when taking selfies. Selfie sticks are perfect for celebrations when you want to capture more people and more details. Bring a selfie stick on Chinese New Year to take better selfies of all the festivities happening around you.

• Make your selfie unique. Some people prefer selfies that look formal and sophisticated, while others like a touch of goofiness every now and then. Whatever your choice is, make sure you are comfortable and having fun. Make your selfie your own, and begin the year of the Red Fire Rooster by being yourself!

This Chinese New Year, take the perfect selfie the easy way with the Vivo V5 Plus perfect selfie phone. For inquiries about Vivo V5 Plus, visit the Vivo website at vivoglobal.ph, or check out their Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/VivoPhil), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/vivophil/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/vivophil) accounts.

Filipinos are certified selfie lovers, as proven by a recent study by TIME, which found that Makati City is the world’s “selfie capital”,...

Filipinos are certified selfie lovers, as proven by a recent study by TIME, which found that Makati City is the world’s “selfie capital”, and the cities of Cebu, Quezon and Iloilo belong to the top 100 “selfiest cities” across the globe. Taking a selfie is an integral part of the lives of millions of Filipinos from all walks of life, which is why they continue to search for the best selfie phone available in the market.

The entry of top five premium global brand1 Vivo’s flagship phone, Vivo V5 Plus, in the local market marks the end of this search. Dubbed as the perfect selfie phone, the Vivo V5 Plus is equipped with the most advanced selfie technology to date, expected to impress selfie- and smartphone-enthusiasts all over the world.

• The world’s first 20MP dual front camera. After intensive research and development, Vivo finally came up with the perfect front camera for selfie lovers. If you think that a 16-megapixel camera is impressive, then prepare to be blown away by the Vivo V5 Plus’ front camera: a 20-megapixel and 8-megapixel combo—the first of its kind.

A total of 200 engineers from Vivo and its partner organizations spent eight months in developing this dual front camera, creating an algorithm specially designed for beautiful portrait shots.

• The true ‘bokeh’ effect. Vivo’s dual front camera consists of a primary (20MP) and a secondary (8MP) camera, with the latter focused on collecting depth-of-field information. The result? An accurate separation of objects based on their distance from the camera lens. This means that the subject in focus is separated from the background, achieving the true bokeh or background-blurring effect, on the spot.

To achieve this, Vivo engineers studied the blurring effects of 96 large aperture SLR camera lenses, simulated each of them in the V5 Plus smartphone algorithm, and added special enhancements to produce even better selfie results.

• The selfie soft light. With the Vivo V5 Plus’ selfie soft light, beautiful self-shots can be taken even at night or in poor lighting conditions. The lighting and brightness of every selfie photo is enhanced, on the spot—with no need for an ‘edit’ button.

• Other advanced phone features. The Vivo V5 Plus is called a ‘perfect’ selfie phone because its advanced camera features are supplemented by other positive attributes such as amazing style, speed, and performance.

With its 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, Qualcom Snapdragon 625 processor, and Funtouch 3.0 OS, you can be sure that this Vivo phone has superior power and efficiency.

The Vivo V5 Plus also has a long-lasting battery, at 3160 mAh, and a fast-charging feature. Thus, you never have to worry about your phone running out of juice.

With an ultra-slim bezel technology, the Vivo V5 Plus is light and handy, making the act of selfie-taking even easier.

With all these and more, the Vivo V5 Plus truly has the most advanced selfie technology to date. And, as a welcome bonus, the newest Vivo phone is priced at only P19,990.

Want to feel motivated this 2017? Here you go. Spotify Reveals Top Workout Music Trends. With almost 25 Million Workout Playlists created o...

Want to feel motivated this 2017? Here you go. Spotify Reveals Top Workout Music Trends. With almost 25 Million Workout Playlists created on Spotify, Globally “Dance Workout” is the No. 1 Workout Playlist. As for the most streamed song of Filipinos, Drake’s ‘One Dance’ tops the list.

Do your #2017goals include getting fit? To help you stay on track, Spotify shares the top workout playlists, artists, songs, and most workout obsessed countries. Time to get your body moving to music that makes you sweat!

“Music can be a great motivator for working out, so long as it’s the right music,” says Spotify’s Trends Expert Shanon Cook. “Year after year, our listeners have made Eminem’s ‘Till I Collapse’ the most popular track to get sweaty to, so it’s pretty clear a message of endurance resonates with them.”

Whether you’re a fitness enthusiast or exercise-averse, you’re bound to find some inspiration in the nearly 25 million workout playlists on Spotify. Check out the Workout category on Browse for more music to kick 2017 into high gear.

Vivo V5 Plus has officially launched last Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia Atrium. One of the newest and most advanced selfie phone in t...

Vivo V5 Plus has officially launched last Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia Atrium. One of the newest and most advanced selfie phone in the market is now under the aggressive smartphone brand Vivo. Vivo Philippines is proud to announce that they are finally making the new Vivo V5 Plus available in Philippine shores.

The Vivo V5 Plus event launch was attended by media, influencers and celebrities. Packed with amazing performances and revelation of the Vivo V5 Plus price and promos in the market. Dubbed as the perfect selfie phone, customers and guests were treated to an amazing afternoon where they get to experience the Vivo V5 Plus' features and of course try the first-ever dual front-facing camera is is a 20 megapixel lens co-engineered with Sony.

We can't deny that Filipinos love selfies, not that we are narcissistic and so full of ourselves but I personally think that we just basically love taking photos with our friends and we like to document things that we do on a day-to-day basis and also share these moments with others. Vivo came into the selfie camera market to bring us the most advanced selfie-technology to day. I mean the specs of the Vivo V5 Plus is amazing. The primary front camera is a 20-megapixel IMX376 and the secondary camera is an 8-megapixel was designed to collect depth-of-field information for improved self-portrait quality.

Part of the technology is the 'bokeh' effect-a background-blurring photography filter complemented by Vivo's enhanced face beauty algorithm allowing users to take radiant selfies with no need for editing or correction. Plus! the phone has a 'selfie soft light' making selfies more possible even in poor lighting conditions.

The Vivo V5 Plus also boasts amazing superior sound system using the same Hi-Fi system of Vivo's recent flagship models. The Vivo V5 Plus is equipped with 4GB RAM, 64 GB ROM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. Capable of performing multiple phone tasks in speed and efficient manner. Running on Vivo's own Funtouch 3.0 operating system based on the Android 6.0.

The Vivo V5 Plus also features an updated fingerprint recognition technology allowing users to unlock the phone in just 0.2 seconds. It also has a fast-charging feature which is very useful nowadays. The screen has a 5.5 -inch large display with an ultra-slim bezel technology and is made of 5th generation Coring Gorilla glass with enhanced resistance.

If you can also notice, the Vivo V5 Plus has a dome-style, 1.8 mm wide u-shaped antenna for a better signal reception and, at the same time, a more stylish exterior design.

The Vivo V5 launch was attended by Vivo executives and partners. Pinoy Boyband Superstar's James Ryan Cesena and Tony Labrusca gave an exciting number which, well the crowd was really into.

Singer KZ Tandingan gave a really powerful performance entertaining the crowd. I didn't know she could sing like that. She was good.

After the performance, they revealed to the audience the price of the Vivo V5 Plus which is P 19,990.

UNIQLO is offering something nice this Chinese New Year. All you have to do is download the UNIQLO app on your mobile...

UNIQLO is offering something nice this Chinese New Year. All you have to do is download the UNIQLO app on your mobile phone and get P300 off on a single receipt purchase of at least P3000 from today until January 29, 2017. This offer is available in all UNIQLO stores nationwide.

The UNIQLO app is available for download on the App Store and on Google Play.

For more updates, consumers may visit UNIQLO Philippines’ website at www.uniqlo.com/ph and social media accounts, Facebook (facebook.com/uniqlo.ph), Twitter (twitter.com/uniqloph) and Instagram (Instagram.com/uniqlophofficial).

In an intimate setting, Huawei Philippines launched their newest gadgets being release early this January 2017. The much awaited Huawei M...

In an intimate setting, Huawei Philippines launched their newest gadgets being release early this January 2017. The much awaited Huawei Mate 9 and the Huawei GR5 2017 is now available in the Philippines and we were lucky to be a part of the few who were able to experience Huawei's newest offering.

First up was the Huawei Mate 9 presented by Nino Carandang. Highlighting the Huawei Mate 9's overall better performance versus its predecessor, the Huawei Mate 9 keeps a step ahead of the game by listening to its customers and addressing the concerns shares Nino.

Better smartphone photography, improved battery life and faster processing. The Huawei Mate 9 addresses the common flaw of today's android smartphone - over time, they lose speed, responsiveness and momentum. But not Mate 9, tests and studies were shown to us of the improved performance and longer battery life compared to their previous Huawei smartphone release which was the Huawei P9.

The beautiful device runs on EMUI 5.0 which is an intuitive user interface that streamlines the users' experience with the IOS which is Android 7.0 Nougat. I find Huawei's EMUI a really good UI making the device more convenient to use and pleasing to the eyes.

The Huawei Mate 9 runs on Kirin 960 chipset which is the highest performing smartphone processor. Huawei Mate 9 is the first smartphone to use this advance chip. Same chip will be available in Galaxy 8 which will be released later this year. Like they said, one step ahead.

One concern I had with the Huawei P9 is that the device heats up. This time, the Huawei Mate 9 stays cool and emits less heat than other phones. Another improvement also is the battery size which is 4000 mAh which also has a SuperCharge technology delivering a fill day's charge in 20 minutes. Now how's that for amazing?

Next was the Huawei GR5 2017 presented by Corrine Bacani.

A smartphone designed to help you get the perfect portrait, the GR5 2017 is built with a powerful dual camera technology perfected to take photos with depth of field and beautiful bokeh shots.

The Huawei GR5 2017 is built with 12MP and 2MP superior dual rear cameras working together allowing autofocus in just 0.3 seconds giving users a dynamic depth of field. Imagine creative professional quality portraits with beautiful bokeh effects and wide-angel shots that are not possible with just a single lens. Huawei sure did target the middle market with this irresistible device.

The front of the Huawei GR5 2017 has a 78 degrees wide angle visual range and 4P lens array with panoramic selfies and offers 1080p video recording. Also good in low-light conditions, the Huawei GR5 gives crisp images with the faster-than-fast ultra-snapshot. The camera has manual and automatic modes giving users the power of a professional SLR camera in a device that can fit one's pocket.

First impressions on the GR5 2017 is that it a smartphone promising a well balanced performance that adjusts to your life. May it be playing games, taking the perfect portraits or just watching videos, the Huawei GR5 delivers where it matters.

Here is a physical comparison of the two smartphones recently launched. The Huawei Mate 9 & Huawei GR5 2017.

The one on top is the Huawei GR5 and the one at the bottom is the Huawei Mate 9.

Looking forward to a more hands-on review of the devices soon! I'm pretty excited! Oh by the way, the Huawei Mate 9 sells for P 31,990 and the Huawei GR5 2017 retails at P 13,990. So what are you waiting for? Head over to the nearest Huawei store near you and get these awesome dual lens smartphones!